ARTICLES ABOUT YELLOW METAL BY DATE - PAGE 5

With a new government coming to power at the Centre, investors will look forward to various policy decisions from the NDA regime. One of the policy measures that could soon be addressed will be on the yellow metal. The relentless hunger for gold among Indians had prompted the then government to take a series of harsh policy measures on the metal last year, after its burgeoning imports threatened to inflate the country's huge current account deficit further. Import duties were raised gradually from 2% to 10%. When this measure failed to curb gold imports adequately, the government in cohort with the central bank took additional steps to achieve the goal.

MUMBAI: Gold was trading Rs 80 lower at Rs 29,780 per 10 grams in the local grey market on Wednesday, pressured partly by a gain in the rupee. The official market in Zaveri Bazaar is closed because of the Buddha Purnima festival. The rupee hit a 10-month high against the dollar, having closed at 59.67 to the dollar on Tuesday. People have started purchasing coins as an investment avenue and are likely to hold smaller denominations until prices correct further, a gold trader said.

After years of relentless uptick in its price, gold has remained subdued for a while. Since rallying to a six-month high in dollar terms in early 2014, the yellow metal seems to have lost some of its lustre. The outflow from the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, USbased SPDR Gold Shares, totalled nearly 10 tonnes last week. Credit Suisse has predicted that it could fall to $1,100 an ounce within a year. India Ratings & Research, a Fitch group company, expects prices of domestic gold declining from Rs 27,500 to Rs 25,500 per 10 g. There are many factors that could influence gold's value in the near term, both internal and external.

KOLKATA: Livelihood of over 75 lakh jeweler families in West Bengal (WB) is threatened due to heavy custom duty on gold imports resulting in a minimum 7-10 days delay in procurement of the yellow metal, Assocham's Eastern Region Gems and Jewellery Council chairperson, Mr Shankar Sen said today. On behalf of Assocham Mr Sen has suggested the government to reduce the duty on imported gold to five per cent to check unprecedented surge in gold smuggling from Nepal and Bangladesh that have emerged as transit points for smuggling the yellow metal into India.

NEW DELHI: Faced with intense pressure to relax gold import curbs, the government said it will review the decision after getting final figures of the current account deficit (CAD). "We will revisit the import duty on gold only after the CAD figures become clear for the end of the year. Let's see what the CAD figures are," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters here. The government had imposed restrictions on imports of the yellow metal to contain the CAD, which touched a record high of USD 88.2 billion in 2012-13.

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry today made a case for easing curbs on gold imports as over-regulation is encouraging smuggling of the yellow metal. "I have been of the consistent view that we have to have a balance. Over-regulation leads to another problem...and that is smuggling. Therefore, some easing is essential," Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma told reporters here. Sharma said he has taken up the issue with the Finance Ministry and the Reserve Bank of India.

NEW DELHI: Outcome of general elections due in April-May with prospects of a stable new government would influence gold prices apart from equity markets, a study said. "Gold prices in India may increase beyond Rs 32,000 per 10 grams in the coming few months in case the voters throw up a highly fractured mandate leading to an unstable government at the centre," industry body Assocham said in a study. On the other hand, in case India gets a decisive government after elections even within a coalition framework, the investor bias will return towards equity and real estate and the gold may lose in the bargain of portfolio shuffling.

MUMBAI: Gold prices posted marginal drop today following lack of firm demand from retail consumers and investors amid sluggish global sentiment. Local buying interest in view of ongoing wedding season as well as upcoming festivals cushioned the slide in the yellow metal. On the other hand, silver regained some lost ground, after recent sharp fall, on emergence of fresh demand from industrial users and coin makers. Standard gold (99.5 purity) moved down by Rs 49 to Rs 30,461 per 10 grams from Rs 30,510 on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Call it the great low-price trick of the investing world, but gold is defying naysayers. Yes, it's glittering again, and experts say we seem to have missed out on that positive. "What has happened, and what we did not capture over the last few weeks is that gradually gold and sliver have climbed back back to 30,000 and 48,000 levels, respectively," Ajay Srivastava, CEO Dimensions Consulting, tells ET Now. "All experts were saying that gold will crash. Goldman issued a major claim on that, but what has really happened actually is that risk-aversion has crept in. The price of precious metals has gone up and that is where the lot of money is going in," he says.

NEW DELHI: In these inconstant times, an investor's quest would be to hit the spots, find a safe haven to park his money and make some decent returns. The stock markets are trading on uncertainty, thanks to the coming general elections in India and the decision by the US to go for QE tapering on the back of a reviving economy. Are equities losing colour? Will gold make for good returns this year? Or do financial savings look the best option? "I am optimistic about equities in 2014 after a pretty long time," says Uday Kotak, VC & MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank.